Why Creativity Is Tanking

Research going back to the 1950s explains why we’re now facing a “creativity crisis”

Last week I wrote about the benefits of boredom, which is something we’re facing less and less of now, thanks to the 11-plus hours a day we spend consuming digital media. But what, exactly, happens to a bored mind without easy access to media? A recent study looked at just that question.

The Canadian neuroscientist James Danckert recruited some volunteers and put them into a neuroimaging scanner. “Then we induced those people into a mood of being bored,” he said. “We had them watch two guys hanging laundry for eight minutes. And … yeah, it succeeds in making people bored shitless.”

When the participants were bored, a part of their brains called the “default mode network” fired on. It’s a network of brain regions that activates when we’re unfocused, when our mind is off and wandering. Mind wandering is a rest state that restores and rebuilds the resources needed to work better and more efficiently when we’re focused on the outside world. Mind wandering is also a key driver of creativity, which is why other studies have found that bored people score significantly higher on creativity tests. Studies going back to the 1950s support this idea.